


though the night feels cold and dark

by goodnighttmoonn



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Channukah, Fluff, Jewish Character, Jewish!Martin, M/M, No beta we die like archival assistants, Set in Episodes 159-160 | Scottish Safehouse Period (The Magnus Archives), apocalypse? we don't know her, basically just me projecting my jewish feels onto martin, i know nothing about scottish weather and it shows, jewish author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28159722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodnighttmoonn/pseuds/goodnighttmoonn
Summary: “Thank you,” He whispered softly. “For making this Channukah so special.”--------------Jon and Martin celebrate Channukah at the scottish safehouse!! Title is from Banu Choshech.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 10
Kudos: 41





	though the night feels cold and dark

**Author's Note:**

> what's uppppp i never thought i'd write my own fic but uh. here we are. i tried my best to write something decent.
> 
> i've seen a lot of holiday jonmartin and this is my contribution!! i am a simple jewish martin kinnie and you can pry jewish!martin from my cold dead hands baby :DD
> 
> anyways uh enjoy!

It was snowing when they arrived at the safe house. Jon gave Martin a quick, worried glance before grabbing their hastily packed bags and carrying them towards the front door. Martin just sat there for a moment, all his thoughts whirling as they had been since they’d walked out of The Lonely. He watched the tiny flakes drift towards the ground and a thought suddenly jumped out at him: Was it really winter already? 

Thinking back, Martin realized he honestly had no idea what day it was. At some point in his time working for Peter Lukas he’d simply… stopped paying attention. He’d practically been living at the Archives again, with complete disregard for regular working hours, and it’s not like he’d been making any plans. Time passed him by when he was lonely, somehow moving impossibly fast and painstakingly slow at the same time. Martin was considering this new realization, feeling more than a little disconcerted when he felt a tentative presence at his side. 

“... Martin? You okay?” Jon said softly. Martin quickly shook himself out of his thoughts and gave Jon a small smile. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m alright. Just… thinking.” Jon nodded understandingly.

“Well, we should probably get inside. It’s freezing out here and the snow’s only supposed to get worse.” Martin nodded and followed him up to the front door and into the small cottage. 

Looking around, it seemed pretty nice. There was a small kitchen and a table with a couple mismatched chairs. Martin noted the kitchen seemed pretty sparse.  _ We should probably go into town tomorrow and pick up some groceries,  _ he thought to himself, smiling a bit at how domestic it all seemed.

Looking further into the cottage Martin could see a cozy sitting area with a large couch and a television that seemed to be a million years old. There was a hallway jutting off to the right and he could see several closed doors. Martin caught himself wondering how many bedrooms there could be in the cottage before shaking the thought away with a blush.  _ We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. _

For now he just sighed and sat down on the large couch, grimacing as a large plume of dust rose from where he sat. 

“Oy vey,” he complained, standing up and dusting off his pants. “This place needs cleaning.”

“Yeah,” Jon replied. “It doesn’t look like Daisy’s stayed here in years. The only things in the kitchen are an absurd amount of canned beans and a loaf of bread so stale and moldy I thought it was a mossy brick.” Martin let out a little laugh at that and Jon’s face brightened. 

“How- How are you feeling?” Jon asked. “I mean- Sorry, no, that’s a dumb question. Obviously you’re not going to be feeling normal right now, you’ve been all on your own with Lukas for MONTHS and we just got out of The Lonely and- Sorry I should probably stop talking. It’s just- Well I’ve missed you Martin.” Martin walked over to where Jon was standing and took his hands gently.

“I’ve missed you too, Jon,” he said softly. “It’s- It’s kind of a lot to process right now but I’m alright.” He tried his best to crack a genuine smile and is surprised at how easily it comes. “I guess you got your wish of running away with me after all.” Jon laughed, and Martin could swear he saw a hint of a blush on his dark cheeks. They both seem to be suddenly aware of the fact that they’re still holding hands and let go, blushing furiously now.

“Well, uh- we should probably clean this place up a bit. There’s no way we can sleep while it’s in this state.” Jon stammered. Martin nodded and started walking over to a door that looks like it belongs to some sort of storage closet. 

“Yeah, I’ll see if I can find any cleaning supplies in here,” he said, opening the door to the closet that appears to be packed full of boxes and other random paraphernalia.

“Let’s just hope those boxes aren’t full of bombs or something,” Jon said jokingly. “Honestly, I wouldn’t even be surprised. Anyway uh, I’ll go check out these rooms, see what I can find.” Jon turned and walked into a room down the hall that seems to be a bedroom. 

The door closed behind him and Martin found himself alone with a plentitude of closed cardboard boxes. He sighed and began opening the one closest to him. He picked off the tape, raised the flaps and froze. Inside the box, surrounded by some bubble wrap, was a dusty, tarnished Channukiah. 

_ Why did Daisy have this? _ He thought. Was she Jewish too? Tonner wasn’t exactly a Jewish name, but then, neither was Blackwood.  _ And it’s not like I ever really got to know her,  _ he thought bitterly. 

His gaze was drawn to the window where what had been just a light snow had turned into a raging snowstorm. Based on how much it was snowing, Martin figured it must’ve been sometime in December. 

His heart sank. Had he missed Channukah? It seemed like a silly thing to worry about, but he felt himself struggling not to tear up, regardless. Even throughout the past few months, he’d still done his best to celebrate the Jewish holidays on his own. For the High Holy Days he’d snuck in the back of a service at his local synagogue, shrouded in fog so no one would see him or try to talk to him.

It was hard to explain what Judaism meant to him. He’d gone to religious school at the synagogue for most of his childhood. He’d never really fit in with the other kids, but he soaked up all the information like a sponge. There was something so beautiful about all the beliefs and traditions, and carrying them on had always been so powerful for him. 

During his time working for Peter Lukas, saying the daily prayers was one of the things that kept him from just losing it. Sure, it was rather haphazard. His sleeping schedule had kind of gone out the window, but he tried his best to say the Shema twice every day and he’d say Modeh Ani whenever he woke up, no matter what random time of day that happened to be. Having that ritual kept him sane and the idea of some kind of higher power that didn’t just want to feed off his fear was comforting. 

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Martin drew his phone from his pocket, choosing to ignore how much his hands were shaking. His home screen told him it was December 10th. He went to Safari and typed ‘Channukah 2020.’ The screen took several moments to load, but when it finally showed up, he sucked in a sharp breath. December 10th. Today. 

Martin let out a small laugh. He hadn’t missed it after all.  _ It’s a Channukah miracle,  _ he thought. Then he quickly sobered. He was in a tiny safe house in the middle of rural Scotland with nothing but a tarnished Channukiah and some moldy bread. It wasn’t like there was much celebrating he could do anyway. 

“What’ve you got there?” Jon’s voice called from the hall where he had emerged with a broom and dustpan.

“Oh, uh, it’s a Channukiah,” Martin responded, turning to face Jon who had started sweeping the floor in the kitchen.

“Huh, I didn’t know Daisy was Jewish.”

“Me neither.” Martin stood up and helped Jon with the dustpan. Together they managed to sweep the entire floor of the cottage, and they did their best to start getting the dust off the furniture. 

“So, uh,” Martin started. “Today’s the first night of Channukah, apparently. I just looked it up.” Jon stopped dusting the shelf and looked at him.

“Really? Why didn’t you say something? We should celebrate!” Martin lowered his eyes.

“I mean, there’s not much we can do, really. I doubt we could even find any candles in here.” He moved to keep cleaning but stopped when he saw Jon’s eyes light up. He didn’t say anything, simply walked quickly into the kitchen and opened one of the large cabinets. He reached towards the back and pulled out an unopened box of candles.

“They’re birthday candles,” he said apologetically, “But we can make it work.”

“How did you kno-” Martin started to ask, but Jon just waved him off.

“Don’t worry about that. Come over here and we can light them!” A smile crept onto Martin’s face as he saw how excited Jon was about this. He joined the other man in the kitchen and they opened the box and took two candles out. After some fiddling, they were able to get them to stand up stable in the Channukiah. Jon found a lighter in another of the drawers and turned to Martin.

“You say the blessings I’ll light the candles?” Martin nodded and began singing out the blessings. As he did, he felt a sense of calm and tranquility come over him. When he was done, and the candles had been lit, he relaxed and stared into them. It was rather late now and outside was pitch dark, but the two candles glowed brightly. 

“Maybe tomorrow when we go into town we can pick up some potatoes to make latkes,” Jon said hopefully. Martin smiled at the thought.

“Oooh I think I remember seeing a Jewish bakery on our way into town!” He exclaimed, feeling excited for the first time in quite a while. “We can see if they have any sufganiyot!!”

“What are those?” Jon asked, leaning closer to Martin. 

“They’re basically filled donuts,” Martin explained. “The strawberry jam ones are my favourite.” His mouth watered at the thought. He hadn’t had sufganiyot in forever, and he looked forward to introducing Jon to them. Maybe they could get a bunch of different ones to both try.

Martin snapped out of his reverie to see Jon gazing at him fondly. When Jon saw he had been caught staring, he looked down guiltily, a definite blush in his cheeks.

“Hey uh, I think Daisy’s got some spinning tops in that box there? They aren’t actually dreidels, but maybe we could put some tape on them or something?” Martin grinned and went to go find the tops.

The two of them sat on the couch together and Martin taped pieces of paper with the four letters to the sides of the top. He showed Jon how to play dreidel, and the two of them used some stale cheerios Martin had found in the cupboard to play a couple games. 

“I don’t understand why you keep getting gimmel,” Martin grumbled. “I think the dreidel hates me.” Jon just laughed.

“Clearly it’s because of my impeccable dreidel spinning skills,” he responded primly. “Although I can’t see how anything could hate you.” Martin blushed and before he could think about it, he had leaned over and was wrapping Jon in a long hug. 

“Thank you,” He whispered softly. “For making this Channukah so special.”

They stayed in that hug for much longer than was strictly necessary. Eventually though, Jon pointed out that it was past midnight and they could both do with some sleep. They made their way to the bedroom—it turned out there was only one after all—and settled in for bed. Jon fell asleep instantly, nestling into Martin’s chest. Martin held him gently, his head still too full of thoughts to fall asleep. 

Tomorrow they would go into town and buy potatoes and sufganiyot. Martin would make friends with the woman who owned the bakery, and she’d give him some free black and white cookies, “To cheer up your grumpy boyfriend.” They’d both blush at that, and then they’d head home and make a mess of the kitchen.

Tomorrow they’d figure out how to start a life in Scotland. But for now, Martin just held Jon close and smiled. He covered his eyes and whispered the words of the Shema into the dark, his chest feeling with a deep calm and contentedness. Everything was going to be okay.

And in the kitchen, the candles on the Channukiah flickered out, leaving the whole cottage in a comfortable darkness.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> anddddd there we go, my first fic!!!!
> 
> i didn't edit it much so uh. hopefully it was okay. also my aromantic ass is horrible at writing fluff but yk i tried my best.
> 
> if you enjoyed pleasepleaseplease validate me and leave kudos / comments!!! i hope you have a wonderful day!!


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